(ORDO NEWS) — At the turn of the century, several huge tunnels were discovered in South America. Later, these same scientists discovered that they were not created either by humans or by a geological process.
According to Discover, when geology professor Heinrich Frank was driving along the highway, he noticed a strange hole built into the hill at the construction site. Frank returned to the tunnel and crawled inside.
The length of the tunnel was 4.5 meters. Frank was certain that the tunnel had not been created by geological processes. At the end of the tunnel, a collection of giant claw marks was found on the ceiling.
“There is no geological process in the world that creates long tunnels with a circular or elliptical cross section that branch, rise and fall, with claw marks on the walls,” Frank told Discover, adding that he “saw dozens of caves that are inorganic in origin, and in these cases it is quite clear that burrowing animals played no part in their creation.”
The tunnel, along with many others found in Brazil and Argentina, is believed to have been created by extinct megafauna.
In the above case, the giant sloths probably made the tunnels 8-10,000 years ago. These creatures are not like modern sloths. They were about the size of an African elephant.
In the Rio Grande do Sul area, Frank and his team discovered more than 1,500 tunnels made by animals, the longest of which stretches 609 meters and reaches 1.8 meters in height.
They were probably slaughtered by teams of sloths over several generations. Despite their size, there is evidence that humans may have hunted giant sloths.
Two hundred fossilized sloth and human footprints found in Utah were analyzed by a team of researchers in 2018. These tracks indicate that people “actively hunted sloths.”
“It may be that sloth behavior was playful, but human interaction with sloths is probably better interpreted in the context of stalking and/or hunting,” the paleontologists write.
“Sloths would be formidable prey. Their strong paws and sharp claws gave them a deadly range and a distinct advantage in close combat.”
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